Bond Yields Rocket Toward 3%: Monday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | August 19, 2013 5:01 pm

Stocks took a back seat to bonds early Monday, as continued fears of an end to the Fed’s quantitative easing policy as early as September accelerated investors out of bond funds, driving 10-year Treasury bond yields toward two-year highs around the 2.9% mark by the end of the day.

Meanwhile, America’s broader stock indices caught up where they left off Friday, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average finish with its worst week in more than a year at over 2% in the red.

The Nasdaq, which traded ahead for most of the day, succumbed to late selling pressure to close down 0.38% at 3589.09. Meanwhile, the Dow closed down 0.47% to 15010.47, and the S&P 500 lost 0.59% to close at 1646.05.

Despite the move lower for the Nasdaq, there was some life among tech stocks. Intel (INTC[1]) pushed higher after it was upgraded by Piper Jaffray to “neutral” from “underweight” to settle in with gains of 1.7%. Apple (AAPL[2]) and Google (GOOG[3]) also moved ahead more than 1%, with the latter challenging a U.K. privacy suit.

However, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ[4]) fell more than 2% despite RBC increasing its price target from $25 per share to $27 per share.

Financial stocks were under pressure all day, with JPMorgan (JPM[5]) falling more than 2% on news that it’s being investigated for alleged bribery of officials in China. Citigroup (C[6]) declined by more than 2%, Bank of America (BAC[7]) traded down nearly 2% and Wells Fargo (WFC[8]) rounded out the Big Four with fractional losses.

Zillow (Z[9]) took a 7% tumble after announcing it would buy real estate website[10] StreetEasy for $50 million. Sectormate Trulia (TRLA[11]) fell more than 5%.

Earnings notables for Tuesday include JCPenney (JCP[12]), Home Depot (HD[13]) and Best Buy (BBY[14]).

Three Up

Mannkind (MNKD[15]): Up 10.4% (60 cents) to $6.37.

Qihoo 360 (QIHU[16]): Up 5.8% ($4.03) to $73.47.

Pandora (P[17]): Up 4.1% (83 cents) to $21.17. (Read more here[18])

Three Down

Cobalt International (CIE[19]): Down 15.2% ($4.47) to $24.90.

Walter Energy (WLT[20]): Down 8.7% ($1.11) to $11.60.

Arch Coal (NYSE:ACI[21]): Down 4.9% (22 cents) to $4.27.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL.